Book Information: Oakland Hills Vodou Murders, the

From the authorThe novel is about the murder of Hillary Chatham Dillard, a beautiful interracial co-ed on a college campus in the affluent Oakland Hills of northern California. The body, covered in duck feathers with the majestic head of a mallard duck protruding from her mouth, was discovered hours after the annual alumni affair. Was it voodoo? (Vodou is the Cajun spelling).

The main character, retired Detective Bill Lincoln, entered the case after a three-month unsuccessful police investigation. Detective Lincoln, a ‘straight shooter,’ does not advertise his political and social allegiances. He clings to the high road, but under relentless grinding pressure, will bend rules dangerously to the edge! He’s a realist - knowing that true idealism can have you night swimming in the San Francisco Bay with a concrete ankle brace.

Detective Lincoln delves into the quirks and quagmires of suspects that span the range of monetary/social affluence, alleged Mafia connections, local explosive politics, and the necromantic elements of voodoo. Two voodoo practitioners provide conflicting opinions. Which one, if either, speaks truthfully? And, there’s the memorable Lenny, the Detective’s ‘helper’, who has been hospitalized for twenty years due to a complete loss of his short-term memory. Lenny is nature’s own, an indomitable physical specimen with the gentleness of a child who rises each morning oblivious to what happened the previous day.

The affluent Dilliard family demand to know who murdered their daughter. They have three remaining children: the eldest, Franklin Jr., is running for high political office; Monique, a design engineer, is stunning and; Radcliffe, the youngest, is a ladies man who has no career ambitions nor a job which equates the lavish lifestyle he lives.

The landscape is from above the beautiful hills of Oakland California where the affluent and powerful sit and rule their ‘flat land’ subjects, to the murky crevices and dark corners of the New Orleans bayou. It is here where superstition supersedes reality and having a gun may not be enough!

Original title: The Oakland Hills Vodou MurdersOriginal languages:
English